Maternal Heart

Terribilis est locus iste : hic domus Dei est, et porta caeli :
et vocabitur aula Dei.

(How terrible this place! It is the house of God and the gate of heaven,
and it shall be called the court of God.)

The Maternal Heart of Mary Chapel, from which the Community takes its name, is where the Community celebrates the traditional liturgy of the Church.

The Maternal Heart of Mary Chapel formerly belonged to the Sister of the Little Company of Mary. Both interiorly and exteriorly untouched since its erection, it remains today one of the most beautiful ecclesiastical buildings in Sydney. Its large barrel vault lends to it one of the finest acoustics to be found making it a worthy and fitting home for the solemn traditional liturgy.

SEE ALSO:

Full text of the article from The Catholic Press 22 Sept. 1927 on the occasion of the opening of the Chapel.

A. M. D. G.
THE FOUNDATION STONE OF THIS CONVENT CHURCH
TO BE DEDICATED TO THE MATERNAL HEART OF MARY
WAS BLESSED AND LAID ON 21^ST AUGUST 1924
BY THE MOST REV. MICHAEL KELLY
ARCHBISHOP OF SYDNEY
AS A JUBILEE TRIBUTE FROM THE HIERARCHY CLERGY AND PEOPLE
TO MOTHER MARY FRANCIS XAVIER LYNCH
PROV. L. C. M.

The laying of the foundation stone of Maternal Heart Chapel marked, to the very day, the Silver Anniversary of the arrival in Australia of Mother Xavier Lynch, who was to become Provincial Superior of the Little Company of Mary. For many years the 'Blue Nuns' provided Sydney with an unparalleled service at Lewisham Hospital. The opening of the chapel was marked by a Solemn Pontifical Mass celebrated by Archbishop Michael Kelly on 18 September 1927, the Golden Anniversary year of the foundation of the Little Company of Mary by the saintly Mother Mary Potter at Nottingham, England. Three archbishops and seven bishops were in attendance. After a day of festivities Solemn Pontifical Benediction was given by Archbishop Redwood of Wellington.

In 1884 Patrick Francis Moran met Mary Potter while in Rome on his way from Ireland to Australia to take up his appointment as the third Archbishop of Sydney. After a year of assessing for himself the needs of the poor and suffering in his new diocese Moran was summoned to Rome. When he arrived home in Sydney on 4 November 1885 as Australia's first Cardinal he was accompanied by six of Mary Potter's sisters. They soon become renowned for the tender and loving care given to the sick and to the dying in their homes, and for the special reverence with which they laid out the bodies of the dead.

From their arrival the sisters lived in rented or borrowed accommodation, until on 4 October 1887, the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, they were able to move into their own convent built on land at Lewisham given to them the previous year by the Cardinal. By Christmas 1887 there were 25 sisters and postulants living in the convent. On 19 August 1888 the foundation stone of the new Children's Hospital of the Holy Child was laid by Bishop Murray of Maitland and on 9 June 1889 the first wing of the hospital was opened by the ever helpful Cardinal Moran. The opening of the first chapel took place on 25 March 1893.

On 7 August 1898 His Eminence blessed yet another foundation stone, this time for the General Hospital. On that one day £800 was collected toward the projected £6,000 cost of the hospital. Such was the esteem in which the citizens of Sydney, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and agnostic held the Blue Nuns that fund-raising was rarely a problem for them in those pioneering days. When Maternal Heart Chapel was opened in 1927 £19,826/4/- of the £23,831/17/- cost had already been raised. In May 1911, three months before his death, Cardinal Moran blessed the last of the seven foundation stones laid at Lewisham during his lifetime, for a new hospital wing.

Dr Edward McMahon described in his 1972 Lewisham Lecture a most significant event which occurred in 1899:

"The golden era of Lewisham Hospital dawned with the arrival of Mother Xavier in Sydney on 21 August 1899. Mother Xavier was a dynamic figure who set out to promote Lewisham and establish the Order, not only in Australia and New Zealand, but also as far afield as South Africa. She was always an immaculately robed and imposing figure as she glided along the corridors. She would have been a great person in any walk of life. She promoted the hospital and the community of Blue Sisters in an expert and untiring manner with nothing but the best being good enough."

At the celebrations which followed the chapel opening Dr Maurice O'Reilly, Rector of St John's College, paid tribute to the magnificent activities of the Mother Provincial who was a woman of big ideas, inasmuch as one with less pluck would have been content with a building less imposing than a chapel costing over £23,000. He pointed out how well the money had been used, and further that the large gathering indicated the affection in which the Sisters were held. The proceedings were broadcast (but not on 2SM which did not then exist).

The chapel was solemnly consecrated on 5 December 1935.

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Architects of the chapel were Wardell and Denning. The High Altar, dedicated to the Maternal Heart of Mary, was built by McBride Studios, of Pietrasanta, Italy, and was the gift of Sir Mark and Lady Sheldon, in memory of T J Dalton. The other four altars, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Saint Michael, Saint Joseph, and Saint Francis Xavier were built by Melocco Bros of Sydney, who were also responsible for the mosaic paving in the sanctuary. The bronze crucifix was the work of a Roman sculptor of the period, Professor D Mastroianni.

FORMER LEWISHAM HOSPITAL CONSERVATION PLAN

In 1990 the consultants who drew up the conservation plan for the former hospital site found the chapel to be of significance to the whole State of New South Wales, saying that it 'demonstrates excellence in design and detailing, is aesthetically pleasing and a notable example of influence of Romanesque style on the traditional language for a religious building.' It displays 'superb craftsmanship in brickwork, joinery, glazing, tiling and plasterwork. Demonstrates height of display of wealth in Catholicism during 20th century'. The consultants made the following recommendations:

'This building is so specialised and such an excellent example of its type, that it could never be used for any other than its originally intended purpose. To do otherwise could be to remove its primary significance. It is the sum of all its parts and could not suffer loss of any of its internal fitments such as pews, choir, screens, altar, religious symbols and motifs without serious detriment to its meaning as a purpose built place of worship.
'(It) could, of course, be preserved as it is - almost as a museum piece.
'While this approach would retain a very significant heritage item, it is not considered to be the most appropriate way of saving the building. It would be a more meaningful way of conserving and interpreting this excellent work of ecclesiastical architecture to find or create a demand for its use as a place of worship, or for related gatherings.

Since 1993 the chapel has been regularly used for the celebration, with official permission, of the traditional Latin Mass. These Masses are usually sung, using Gregorian chant, which had been described by the Second Vatican Council as 'distinctive of the Roman liturgy; therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services'. The chant's importance to the musical heritage and to the living culture of the West has been increasingly acknowledged in recent years, even in secular circles.

Mother Xavier, who had many musical friends, including Madame Melba and John McCormack, insisted as always on the highest standards in everything her Sisters did. The nuns at Lewisham became famous for their music as well as their medicine, and released two LP records, which included some Gregorian pieces. No doubt Mother Xavier would be pleased to know that the preservation of the chapel built in tribute to her is linked in a special way to the preservation of the most distinctive form of Catholic music.

THE ORGAN

M P Möller Inc. of Maryland, USA, built the pipe organ installed in 1928 to the side of the gallery. The Sydney organ consultant, Joseph Earnshaw, wrote soon afterwards:

'Recently it was my privilege to have installed in the lovely chapel connected to Lewisham Hospital, an ideal instrument with wonderful tonal variety, due to the excellent voicing of the pipes. The remarkable purity of each register is unique, enabling the player to use his couplers with fine effect. All the pipes are enclosed in a swell box; two manuals; built on the duplex system; containing nine stops (seven manual and two pedal); tubular-pneumatic action; adjustable pistons; crescendo pedal in addition to the ordinary swell pedal.
The touch is delightful; prompt repetition; excellent workmanship. This fine organ . . is a credit to the art of modern organ construction.'
selecting such a fine instrument the perfectionist Mother Xavier showed that she would have agreed with the Second Vatican Council, when it decreed that 'the pipe organ is to be held in high esteem, for it is the traditional musical instrument that adds a wonderful splendour to the Church's ceremonies and powerfully lifts up the spirit to God and to higher things.'

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Sources used in the compilation of this leaflet include:

No One Dies Alone, Dick Wordley, published for the Little Company of Mary by Australian Creative Workshop, Sydney, 1976
Historic Organs of New South Wales, by Graeme D. Rushworth,
published by Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1988
'Pioneers of Lewisham Hospital' by E G McMahon in Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society, Volume IV, 1973, Part 2.
The Freeman's Journal and The Catholic Press, both dated
22 September 1927